Exploring immigration

TRACI L. WEISENBACH, Tribune Staff Writer

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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PIGEON— Torri Ferris’ classroom at Cross Lutheran School in this town transformed into Ellis Island on Tuesday as she and fellow teacher Gwynne Barry led a fun and educational immigration activity for third- through eighth-graders.

As part of the afternoon lesson, students received an immigrant checklist and were assigned immigrant names and backgrounds. They wore signs with information about their respective immigrant characters, including the home country, age and health status. Many students dressed up for the activity.

Students made their way through five stations. At each station, they answered questions about their vocations, character and health and earned points based on the answers to the questions. Their answers depended on their assigned character. If students didn’t earn enough points, they were sent to a deportation station or an appeals station, just as immigrants faced generations ago.

If students earned enough points at each station, they could go to the loyalty oath station, where they recited an oath that officially announced they were a U.S. citizen.

School employees said students have been talking about this activity for several days. After completing the activity, students said they enjoyed discovering what immigrants — their ancestors — had to do when they came to the U.S. They also enjoyed seeing their schoolmates dress up for the occasion.

“I learned how long the process was,” said Tyonna Fahl, who was one of the “immigrants” who took the loyalty oath.

“It was fun to find out what the loyalty oath was like,” said Kirsten Shupe.